Many years after Mozart’s death, his wife
Constanze mentioned her late husband’s favorite works. What
she said will surprise many people:

“He was fond of Don Giovanni and The Marriage
of Figaro, but perhaps most of all Idomeneo. He had wonderful
memories of the time and circumstances of its
composition.”

People who think they know and love Mozart
are often amazed when they first discover Idomeneo. They have
never heard Mozart sound quite like this.

The best known Mozart operas are comedies or
have significant comic elements. Idomeneo is deadly serious
in its subject: Can a father escape his terrible vow to
sacrifice his own son?

No one would dream of suggesting that
Mozart's comic operas are not profound, but they are
different. Mozart himself called Idomeneo a Grand Opera. It
reflects the lyrical singing tradition of Italian serious
opera with strong dramatic influence from French reformed
opera.

But do not imagine that Idomeneo is stark,
archaic and formal. All the characters are delineated with
familiar Mozartian humanity. It has a moving love story. When
Ilia finally confesses to the bewildered Idamante "I love
you, I adore you," you could pick a century out of a hat, and
this would feel true.

As in Greek tragedy, the chorus has a central
role, commenting on the action and representing the
community, which is deeply affected by the hero's decisions.
The great choral ode in Act 3, Oh voto tremendo, ranks with
Mozart's most profound religious music.

Again as in Greek tragedy, Idomeneo has
dancing, including an explicit ballet at the end.

The orchestra in Munich was the best in the
world. Mozart knew the orchestra and was eager to write for
it. He always liked to know the qualities of his singers
before he wrote their arias, so he could suit the music to
their character and abilities. The same can be said about his
writing for this famous orchestra. He could ask them to play
with a level of (almost violent) precision and nuance that
was revolutionary. Of course Mozart himself conducted.

In Mozart's time, the symphonic tone poem did
not yet exist, but passages in Idomeneo show that Mozart was
a born master of the genre, painting with iridescent
orchestral color. The circumstances of this opera inspired
Mozart to enter a musical world that he never again had an
opportunity to revisit.

Mozart was only 24 years old when he wrote
Idomeneo. He knew this was a chance to do something really
sensational, and he did it.

Our Production

The opera is set in ancient Greece,
specifically on the island of Crete just after the Trojan War
(very roughly 1200 BC.)

In Mozart's time, essentially nothing was
known about the archaeology of this period, so the sets and
costumes would be based on generic notions of antiquity.

In the late 19th century Heinrich Schliemann
excavated Troy and Mycenae, the home of Agamemnon in the
Iliad. In 1899, Sir Arthur Evans began his excavations at
Knossos in Crete, revealing the extraordinary artistic riches
of the Minoan world. During the 20th century numerous sites
in Crete were excavated, and scholars can even read the
inscribed clay tablets (in Linear B) from the latest phase of
the palace at Knossos.

Today we know much more about the world in
which a real King Idomeneo might have lived. Our production
does not claim to be 100% historically accurate—we must in
any case respect the libretto and certain conventions of the
18th century. But we can say that we have tried to take our
inspiration directly from archaeology.

We believe that our production is unique in
the way it sets the stage firmly in the Minoan and Mycenaean
world.

Two of our sets directly reproduce the
architecture and decoration of the Palace at Knossos.

The opening set for Act 1 recreates the
so-called Queen's Megaron in the Domestic Quarter of the
Palace. It is copied from a watercolor made by the
excavators, which shows how they believed the apartment might
have looked, based on archaeological evidence.

The final set for Act 3 is an almost
full-scale copy of the facade of the Palace (facing the
courtyard). This facade included a small shrine, which fits
perfectly with the requirements of the opera.

For the harbor scene in Act 2, our backdrop
reproduces a wonderful miniature fresco from the island of
Santorini dating to about 1700 BC. This fresco shows ships in
a harbor with a town at the side. This is not a "digital
projection" but rather an image we printed on a very large
scrim. The original miniature fresco is about 17 inches high.
Our copy is about 17 feet high and over 80 feet wide! When
you watch this scene, you will be looking at a picture of a
harbor and town that was painted even before Idomeneo's
time.

For the final ballet, a similar backdrop
reproduces the famous "Toreador Fresco" from Knossos.

Our costumes are also inspired by the Minoan
world, though not intended as historical reproductions.

Mozart wrote extended ballet music for
Idomeneo, which unfortunately is almost always omitted from
modern performances. Our production retains a significant
portion of the ballet, which we believe is an essential
element in the opera.